[Sca-cooks] Misconceptions about Medieval Medicine

[marilyn traber 011221]

> 
> Anybody wishing (no, I'm not talking about anyone here or the author 
>  of the article, just speaking generally) to poke fun at the 
>  whimsicality of humoral medicine and leeches and such, can at least 
>  discuss the success rate of acupuncture, acupressure, and the vast  
> amount of herbal and humoral medicine still being practiced, even in 
>  hospitals, in China.
> 
> The tendency of some ignorant moderns to dismiss those silly 
> ancients  and their unsophisticated medicine pretty much flies in 
> the face of  the modern medicine of a significant portion of the world.
> 
> Adamantius

Yep. You know that, and I know that, but there are some almighty strange 
practices occuring as we sit here talking.

Taking "Faith Healing" as an example of a perhaps not entirely scientific 
method of curing humanity's ills, many of us will pooh pooh the activity, yet 
there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the effects of a 
positive attitude on healing, whether religiously inspired or not, can make a 
trememdous difference in recovery from disease- yes, even including AIDS and 
cancer.

And, to head in another direction, you haven't had a chance yet to read 
Paul's new book on Chinese Medicine (as yet unpublished), but there's a 
tremendous number of people who take the "superiority" of certain Chinese 
medical practices as a matter of faith- yet looking at it from an historical 
perspective, much of what they use and used were derived from various facets 
of "primitive" Medieval Eupopean medicine.

Much as we try, we don't know all the answers- medicine today remains an art, 
which is simply more dependent on science than it has been in the past. I 
find it very interesting though, that as we learn more, we're coming back 
around to the "primitive" Medieval view of things, in terms of an holistic 
approach, where combining aspects of diet, scientific treatment, and 
psychology are all needed to help an individual attain and retain optimal 
health.

We even had a discussion on Chirurgeon's List today about an appropriate use 
of psychology in treating people in a multiple casualty situation.

Phlip